FREE Books and guides on data, cloud and AI careers
Build your tech career with a guide who has done it for more than two decades.
Practical roadmaps for students, career guides for working engineers, and books on data architecture and forward deployed engineering. From Neeraj Bhatyal, enterprise data architect in New York.
// 01 where to start
Where are you starting from?
// 02 learn by topic
Learn what real engineering teams use
CS fundamentals
Data structures, databases, networks and operating systems, explained without the jargon.
Guides →Data engineering
From SQL to Spark to the lakehouse: pipelines, integration and data products the way enterprises build them.
Book: Part II →Cloud engineering
Cloud-native data architecture on AWS and beyond: storage, compute, networking, security and cost.
Book: chapter 6 →AI engineering
Generative AI, RAG, vector databases, knowledge graphs and agents, built on trusted data foundations.
Book: Part III →Forward deployed engineering
Embed with customers, scope fuzzy problems and ship AI systems that people actually use.
Two-volume book →Career and higher studies
First jobs, growing into senior roles, and when a master's degree is worth it for a tech career.
Guides →// 03 books
Two decades of lessons, written down
Three books: one on enterprise data architecture, and a two-volume guide to forward deployed engineering. Read the first chapters of each free.
The Enterprise Data Architect in the Age of AI
Architecting the intelligent enterprise through cloud, lakehouse, data products and generative AI. Five parts, 25 chapters, from the evolution of the role to RAG, agents, governance and leadership.
// 04 career guides
Start with these guides
The enterprise data architect in the AI era
How the data architect's role changes when AI systems read, reason over and act on enterprise data, and the skills and framework the modern role needs.
GUIDEHow to become a data engineer
The skills, projects and first-job strategy that actually get you hired as a data engineer, with a 6-month plan for beginners.
GUIDEWhat a forward deployed engineer does
The role that sits between customers and code: what FDEs do, why AI made the role essential, the skills it needs and how to grow into it.